An Encounter
by hakuchihirolover
Summary: During the war against Oz, a young woman has an encounter with two f the Gundam pilots.


AN: HERE IS A LITTLE SOMETHING THAT I THOUGHT UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WHILST LISTENING TO MY MACHINE HEAD ALBUM AND PLAYING TETRIS. I DON'T OWN GUNDAM WING, THE ONLY THINGS I OWN ARE MY MUSIC COLLECTION, MY BOOKS AND THE TV/VIDEO IN MY ROOM.  
  
An Encounter  
  
Lucy sighed and closed her book, it was three o'clock in the morning and she still hadn't finished reading it for class tomorrow. Her English Professor would do his nut if she turned up the next morning without having read it. She massaged the bridge of her nose and took a sip of the black coffee on the table. She made a face; it had gone cold a long time ago. She stood up and took the cup over to the sink and rinsed it out and placed it in the drainer.  
  
She sighed again, wishing once again that she were back at home instead of here. Her parents had been killed in an attack by OZ forces and she had bought herself this house with some of the money that they had left her. She chuckled slightly at the irony of it all, most kids in their late teens would kill for the chance of any independence from their parents and she wanted nothing more than to be back at home being looked after. Taking a packet of corn chips from the cupboard, she picked up her book and walked into the lounge.  
  
The lounge was her favourite room in the entire house. It was deceptively large, with high ceilings and countless hidden alcoves. The floor had once been carpeted, but Lucy had stripped the carpet away to reveal the handsome mahogany boards. The television was large and positioned so that it was accessible from all corners of the room. There were white sheepskin rugs on the floor and a cluster of armchairs around a glass topped coffee table. Behind the long black leather sofa was a set of shelves on which resided a state of the art hi-fi system and her book collection.  
  
Lucy collapsed on the sofa and began to read again. She had hardly finished one chapter when she was disturbed by the unexpected sound of the doorbell ringing. Wondering who could possibly be visiting at such a late hour, she put the book down and went into the hall.  
  
The glass panes in the front door silhouetted the person who was calling and when Lucy looked through these, what she saw was a strange lumpy silhouette. Curious, she slid the bolt across and opened the door a fraction. When she looked out, what she saw was even stranger that what she saw through the glass panels.  
  
Two teens stood on the stoop. She decided that they were about fifteen, two years younger than she was. One was carrying the other, but it seemed that they were on the verge of collapse as well. This one was fairly tall, with elfin features and a long chestnut braid that hung down to their waist. It was difficult to tell their gender due to the darkness and the dark stains on their faces, 'not blood' she told herself, but she assumed the long haired one was female as a man with that kind of hair was uncommon to say the least.  
  
The other was shorter, though it was difficult to tell due to the fact that the girl was carrying him. By his features it was obvious that he was Japanese. Both of them were sagging from fatigue and their clothes were torn and singed. The girl looked up at her from under long chestnut bangs. Her eyes were an astonishing shade of violet that made Lucy start from their intensity. It was only when she spoke, that Lucy realised that the girl was, in fact, a boy.  
  
"Please," he said, "My friend is injured and I need a little help to patch him up and I can't take him to the hospital. Is it okay if we come in? We won't stay very long, just long enough to get him patched up and conscious and then we'll go."  
  
The boy had a slight American accent, though it was dulled in a way that made Lucy think that this boy was experienced at changing his voice to how he needed it be. Something about the desperation in his voice made Lucy's heart bleed for the two boys and she opened her door to let them in.  
  
The American sighed in relief as he carried the other boy into her house and quickly shut the door after them. He followed Lucy as she went into the large downstairs bathroom.  
  
As the American gently set down his burden, Lucy walked quickly to kneel by the large antique chest underneath the window. She opened the metal clasps and raised the heavy oaken lid. She then dragged the chest over to the kneeling boy and said,  
  
"I have some bandages and suchlike in here, if you want to use them."  
  
The boy turned to smile and her and said in a heartfelt manner,  
  
"Thank you."  
  
He then bent to his task, bandaging the other boy with an efficiency that startled Lucy somewhat. She had been expecting the boy to be unable to bandage his companion and for her to have to help, but she merely stood watching as the long-haired American set boned and tied bandages with an efficiency that most paramedics didn't have.  
  
When he was finished, the American then lifted his companion's head and, with a loving care that shocked Lucy, gently and thoroughly washed his grimy face and tousled hair. Sensing that the unconscious boy was close to catching a cold, she quickly walked over to one of cupboards and brought out a soft blue blanket. She handed it the boy and said,  
  
"Why don't you get the two of you washed up and I'll find you some stuff to wear. Then you can put him in one of the spare bedrooms and you can join me for something to drink or you can get some rest as well."  
  
The boy gave her an appraising glance and then nodded his thanks and acceptance. She left the room, shutting the door gently behind her. She had originally planned on just finding the two boys some clean dry clothes to wear, but by the time she placed the sports bag by the closed bathroom door, it contained almost all the old clothes that she could give them.  
  
She was sitting in the lounge, reading her book from earlier, when the door opened to reveal the longhaired boy. She gasped in amazement when he had fully entered the room. Earlier, dirt and other unmentionables had marred his looks, but now that he was clean and there was some colour back in his face his beauty struck her fully.  
  
He was beautiful, not handsome perhaps, but he possessed an integral beauty that shone from him like a light. He had taken her advice and had had a long hot shower. His hair was now clean, dry and neatly rebraided. His face was now clean of all the dirt, blood, mud and oil that had marred it before. He had delicate elfin features that hid an inner strength that could be seen in his sparkling violet eyes. He had put on a pair of indigo jeans and a blue and white shirt from the bag that Lucy had left him.  
  
He blushed when he heard her gasp and, somehow, Lucy felt that this reaction was uncommon for him, that he was exceedingly nervous about something to make him lose control like that. The silence that followed his entrance was slightly uncomfortable, so Lucy put down her book again and stood up. Feeling that it was important that she gave the strange boy a reason to trust her, she spoke kindly,  
  
"Do you want to have a drink and something to eat while your friend wakes up?"  
  
He started at her question and then narrowed his eyes and stared at her. Lucy felt uncomfortable under his gaze; it was like he was seeing into her soul. Seeming satisfied, the boy nodded his acceptance of her offer. Breathing out the breath she hadn't known she had been holding, Lucy walked out of the lounge and led the boy down the corridor to the chrome and wood kitchen.  
  
When they entered this new room, Lucy noticed that the boy seemed to be evaluating his surroundings for any possible danger. The boy's reactions concerned her, even though he seemed only a couple of years younger than she was, Lucy felt an unexplainable urge to protect this boy. Walking into the room, she opened a cabinet and started rooting around for some snacks. After some examination, she turned back to the boy and said,  
  
"Ok, we have: every conceivable flavour of popcorn and crisps, prawn crackers, pretzels, corn chips, chocolate cakes of all varieties and every type of biscuit you can imagine plus a few more."  
  
On seeing his incredulous look, she answered his unspoken question,  
  
"My parents were killed in an OZ attack and they left me all their money, I've taken the opportunity to fill the cupboards with all the junk food I can get my hands on."  
  
The boy relaxed a bit and let his tight features relax into an easy smile that made his astonishing violet eyes twinkle. He laughed and quipped,  
  
"Ah yes, I see a good protégé here. I always make sure to consume food from the vital food groups: fat, sugar, pizza and cake. Kat is always shitting me for not eating healthily enough, I'm going to die one day anyway, so I may as well go down happy."  
  
The end of this statement sent a shiver down Lucy's spine and she asked,  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
He smiled a ghostly smile that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she in a deadly voice,  
  
"We all die, sooner or later."  
  
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Lucy tried another route to more easy conversation,  
  
"Who's Kat?"  
  
He smiled at her, recognising her defusing technique, and answered,  
  
"He's another friend of mine, his real name's Quatre, but I call him Kat or Q-man to annoy him."  
  
She smiled back at him, remembering all the time she had annoyed her friends and adversaries by giving them diminutive names to purposefully aggravate them. Then she asked a question that had been prying on her mind since she had first let the two blood soaked boys into her home.  
  
"Where are your parents and your friends' parents?"  
  
The boy gave a wry smile and answered,  
  
"There dead, my parents and the other guys' parents. Don't pity me, I never knew 'em. I was raised on the streets of L2 and OZ killed the closest things I had to parents. I've lived alone or in less than orthodox manners all my life and now I've met the guys we don't spend much time in one place either."  
  
She looked up at this,  
  
"So you're in a gang?"  
  
The boy seemed to consider this before he answered,  
  
"Yeah, I suppose you could call it that. It's not exactly a big gang though, only five of us."  
  
"What are you and your friends called."  
  
"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you."  
  
Something about the flippant manner in which the boy made this comment chilled Lucy to the bone. Attempting to once more lead the subject matter into safer waters, she asked,  
  
"Do you want some coffee?"  
  
"Normally I'd ask if you had anything stronger, but Hee-chan would kill me if I drank while I'm on a mission, so I'll have to ask for some very strong coffee, preferably lots of it."  
  
Slightly confused by his reference to a mission, she went over to her baby, otherwise known as an expresso machine, and made two cups of extremely strong expresso coffee. Sliding into a chair, she gratefully drank the hot elixir and passed the other mug to her guest. He sat down warily and she placed the biscuit barrel at a strategic angle between them.  
  
He sniffed at his coffee for a moment and then sipped it tentatively. Seeming satisfied with something, he took a few longer gulps before placing his cup down again. He then picked up a biscuit and did the same checks before biting into it deeply and eating the entire thing without spilling a crumb. Seeing her stare, he swallowed and then spoke,  
  
"Sorry, I grew up on the streets and if you didn't eat quickly then you would have your food nicked. The guys are always complaining about how I eat, but it's an instinct I just can't get rid of."  
  
He had answered her questioning look, but hadn't exactly given her the answer she had been looking for. His eating habits had been somewhat unusual, but he had already told her about growing up on the streets. It had not been the speed of his eating that she had been really interested in.  
  
She had been disturbed by the way in which he had seemingly checked everything he ate for poisons or drugs before touching it. It was disturbing that a boy of his age would even bother to check his food for poisons or drugs and the fact that he had recognised that there were none was also unusual.  
  
It hurt her slightly that the kid would suspect her of poisoning him, but she was more concerned about what this told her about him. This suspicion was not normal, even for a boy who had grown up on the streets of L2 and lived in wartime. No, there was something more to this kid, something deeper and far more disturbing. As she was considering this, she remembered something the kid had said to her when he first had asked for her help.  
  
"You said that you couldn't go to the hospital, why's that?"  
  
The kid gave an almost imperceptible flinch and said,  
  
"I was hoping you wouldn't remember that. Lucy, What I am about to tell you can go no farther. If I even suspect that you might even think about betraying us, I will have no qualms about adding you to the list of people who I've killed. Do you understand me?"  
  
Shocked and slightly scared by this outburst, she could only nod dumbly, her curiosity as to how he knew her name momentarily forgotten.  
  
"Okay," he continued, "don't make me regret my decision to tell you this. My name is Duo Maxwell; my companion and I are Gundam pilots 01 and 02. The reason why I came here instead of the hospital should now be obvious. I would normally not go anywhere for medical assistance, but Hee-chan nearly died not long ago and I promised the guys that I would look after him a bit better this time. You mustn't tell anyone this, I'm already going to be in enough trouble with Hee-chan as is."  
  
"You got that right."  
  
A voice interrupted from the doorway. Duo paled and stood as the previously unconscious boy walked into the kitchen, his face was set in iron, implacable and cold. The boy continued,  
  
"Baka. Have you any idea just what you have done? You have jeopardised not only this mission but also the continued existence of the Gundam pilots. Do you take nothing seriously? This onna will betray us and it will be your fault. Omae o Koruso."  
  
Lucy didn't understand some of what he was saying, but she knew it was uncomplimentary. Incensed, she rose from her chair and strode over to the boy. Staring down at him, she spoke, barely controlled anger causing her voice to quiver slightly.  
  
"I made an oath not to betray you. I am Lucy Maria Cassandra Buchanan; I do not break my oaths. I swear that I will die before I breathe a word of your secret. On the graves of my parents and the blood in me I swear it. May I be condemned to eternal torture if I break this oath."  
  
Both boys stared at her for a moment before they regained their composure. The boy turned to Duo and said,  
  
"Koi, we have to go."  
  
Duo seemed to be delighted at something. He turned away to go with the other boy and then turned back to look at Lucy. He smiled softly and then wrapped his arms around the other boy's slender shoulders. The two boys walked out of the kitchen and Lucy's life.  
  
After the end of the Mariemaia incident, the identities of the Gundam pilots were released. Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Wufei Chang were proclaimed heroes. Lucy never finished her book for Lit and she never broke her oath to the two pilots.  
  
THE END (or is it?)  
  
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. ALL COMMENTS AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ARE WELCOMED BUT FLAMERS AND HOMOPHOBES WILL BE KILLED. I AM THINKING OF WRITING A SEQUEL, BUT I WON'T UNLESS YOU CLICK THE MAGIC BUTTON IN THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. 


End file.
